Issue - meetings

That the report be noted.

Members received an overview of the circulated report.

Audit Wales highlighted that the Council does not have a current vision and plan for managing its assets or timely and comprehensive monitoring arrangements. This conclusion was reached as the Council, at the time of the work, had not yet set out an updated vision and ambition for the strategic use of its assets.

The asset delivery action plan, should combine the scale of the poor condition and associated costs of maintaining its assets and  present significant risks.

Audit Wales highlighted they issued three recommendations to the Council to address some of these weaknesses that had been identified.

The first recommendation related to the strategic asset management vision and strategy. Audit Wales stated that in developing its new Corporate Asset Management Strategy, the Council should put the sustainable development principle at the heart of its considerations setting out its long-term vision and outcomes it wanted to achieve over the short, medium and longer term.

Recommendation two addressed strategic asset management planning and delivery, and once the Council had agreed its new Corporate Asset Management Strategy, it should develop the supporting arrangements to ensure that it has sufficient corporate oversight and a consistent approach to the delivery of its asset objective across the organisation.

The third recommendation made related to strategic asset management and governance.  Audit Wales stated that the Council needs to be able to understand the progress its asset management strategy and arrangements were making and how those were helping to deliver and achieve its well-being objectives, assuring itself that its current governance arrangements were sufficient to effectively monitor its progress.

The Council needs to develop and communicate regular progress monitoring reports, develop a broader set of asset related measures and look for opportunities to benchmark itself against other organisations.

Council Officers mentioned that in terms of recommendation one, officers completed the revised asset management plan in April 2024, it was a little delayed for several reasons, including Covid, where staff were diverted from the strategic work to undertaking a range of other tasks.

There have been some recruitment issues within the service area for the last several years, particularly around the difficulty of recruiting within the current salary bands, in terms of surveyors the capacity was 66%.  Work on the Strategy was completed in April 2024 and set for the next five years.

Officers mentioned in relation to Recommendation two, they currently run with an Organisational Development Board and that was looking at a holistic view, of the way that the authority manages all its assets, which includes property, Information Technology and Human Resources. Officers mentioned that the group meets quarterly and deals with the operational property issues. In addition, Officers mentioned that a group will be set up in relation to Strategic Asset Management. Officers highlighted in terms of the non-operational property, that would be reported through the property performance reports. The non-operational property reports would be produced around May 2025. Officers highlighted in terms of governance, all  ...  view the full minutes text for item 4